Sacrificial feasting in the Linear B documents

Hesperia, Spring, 2004 by Thomas G. Palaima

ABSTRACT

Linear B tablets and sealings from Thebes, Pylos, and Knossos monitor preparations for communal sacrifice and feasting held at palatial centers and in outlying districts. In this article I discuss the nature of the Linear B documents and focus on the fullest archaeological and textual evidence, which comes from Pylos. Translations of the key texts are presented in an appendix. Individuals and groups of varying status were involved in provisioning commensal ceremonies; prominent among the participants were regionally interlinked nobility, the wanaks ("king") and the lawagetas ("leader of the laos"). Commensal ceremonies helped establish a collective identity for inhabitants of palatial territories. Two land-related organizations, the da-mo (damos) and the worgioneion ka-ma, represented different social groups in such unifying ceremonies.

STATE OF THE EVIDENCE

There have been great advances in the study of Linear B documents over the past 25 years. (1) We have a much fuller picture now of feasting rituals within Mycenaean palatial territories. Mycenological advances can be classified as follows: 1) the comparative study of sphragistics (inscribed and uninscribed sealings and their uses); (2) 2) better understanding of Mycenaean technical terminology; (3) and 3) detailed examination of relevant Linear B tablet series. (4) At the same time, Mycenologists have been aware of the need to interpret the inscribed evidence within the context of our increased understanding of palatial architecture and iconography, (5) archival record processing, (6) the material and artifactual record, (7) regional geography, (8) social power structures, (9) economy and resource management, (10) and anthropological and cross-cultural parallels. (11) As a result, we understand better than ever the significance of centrally organized commensal ceremonies for reinforcing Mycenaean social and political unity and stratification.

The importance of sacrificial feasting ritual in Late Mycenaean palatial society is clearly reflected in the care taken by individuals, whom we conventionally refer to as Mycenaean scribes, in overseeing the preparations for sacrifice and feasting activities. (12) The Linear B feasting data fall mainly into the following categories: first-stage recording of individual contributions of animals for eventual sacrifice and consumption at feasting ceremonies; targeted collection of foodstuffs from various components of the community who would then be symbolically unified and socially positioned by feasting; and inventorying of banqueting paraphernalia, furniture, and instruments of cult. (13)

My purpose here is to discuss the nature of the Linear B data for feasting from various Mycenaean palatial centers and to reconstruct the evidence from Pylos, the site best documented archaeologically and epigraphically. This will make clear how important such unifying ceremonies were and the extent to which they affected individuals and localities, at all levels of the sociopolitical hierarchy, throughout Mycenaean palatial territories.

The key primary texts of importance for discussing sacrificial ritual and feasting ceremony from Thebes, Pylos, and Knossos are presented in English translation in the appendix at the end of this article, many translated together for the first time. I translate here those tablets whose contents are vital for a clear understanding of the textual evidence for sacrificial feasting practices. The Pylos Ta tablets, whose many technicalities require major exegesis (see below), and, with one exception, the new tablets from Thebes are not included. (14) The new evidence from Thebes has been subject to very dubious interpretations in the editio princeps. Until we reach a clearer consensus on what these texts contain and what their purposes were, and even how many full texts there are, it would be a disservice to incorporate their minimal evidence into discussions of any aspect of Mycenaean culture. One new Thebes tablet, however, has clear and unequivocal relevance to feasting, and I translate and discuss it below. (15)

PROBLEMS OF INTERPRETATION

The keys to our current understanding of the textual data are the interpretation of an intentional collection of sealings from Thebes related to the contribution of single animals to a centralized communal sacrifice and feast; (16) the correct identification of the meaning of the term o-pa and related terminology for service obligation; (17) and the continuing refinement of the interpretation of the Ta series at Pylos, which deals with furniture, vessels, fire and cooking implements, and tools of sacrifice for a major feasting ceremony. (18) The Linear B tablet evidence is notoriously uneven in its representation of palatial interests from region to region. The sphere of ritual and ceremonial activity is no exception. We are dependent on the hazards of destruction and discovery. For any site, we have but a random selection of records from days, weeks, or months within an annual administrative cycle. (19) We therefore have only a partial view of what must have been fuller documentary oversight of the economic activities that were sufficiently complex and important to warrant inclusion in the internal mnemonic records written in Linear B. The records themselves were kept for subsequent reference by tablet-writers or other palatial officials. (20)